Science

Wonder material: ball-and-stick illustration of a single sheet of graphene. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/billdayone) After amazing us with its incredible strength, flexibility and thermal conductivity, graphene has now chalked up another remarkable property with its magnetoresistance. Researchers in Singapore and the UK have shown that, in near-pristine monolayer graphene, the room-temperature magnetoresistance can be orders of magnitude

COLORADO SPRINGS — Firefly Aerospace says its future medium rocket it is developing with Northrop Grumman will be ready to compete in the next round of U.S. national security launch contracts. The medium-lift rocket, projected to launch in 2025, is being designed to “support the requirements of the U.S. Space Force NSSL Phase 3,” Firefly

COLORADO SPRINGS — Investment activity is picking up again for young space companies as growth-stage capital returns following market uncertainty in 2022, according to investors on an April 18 Space Symposium panel. The “space industry is thriving at the moment,” Seraphim Space CEO Mark Boggett said, pointing to the venture capital firm’s research showing a

In the loop: PhD student Monika Monika takes a closer look at the negative-temperature experimental setup in Jena. (Courtesy: Ira Winkler/University Jena) Researchers in Germany and the US have created photon gases that can exist at “negative temperatures” while undergoing basic thermodynamic processes – including expansion and compression. The research could lead to the development

COLORADO SPRINGS — The head of the U.S. Space Force launch program office, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, said he has been briefed by United Launch Alliance on an anomaly experienced last month during testing of the Centaur upper stage of ULA’s new rocket Vulcan Centaur. But he said it’s too early to predict what long-term

COLORADO SPRINGS — A drop in space company valuations could open the door to more transactions in the industry, according to an April 17 Space Symposium panel on the outlook for deals, as long as they can navigate increasing regulatory scrutiny. “There were a lot of deals that we haven’t participated in over the last

Deep underground: an access shaft for the Large Hadron Collider could be used to host a 100 m prototype atom interferometer (courtesy: arXiv:2304.00614) The CERN particle-physics laboratory near Geneva could be an ideal location for a next-generation atom interferometer. That is according to an international collaboration of researchers who say that the experiment could be

COLORADO SPRINGS — Amazon Web Services said April 18 it picked 14 U.S. and European startups to join its third annual space accelerator program kicking off in May to boost ventures with solutions for improving space sustainability. The four-week program provides technical and business support for early-stage space companies looking to develop their businesses using

COLORADO SPRINGS — Efforts to streamline and accelerate space licensing procedures to keep up with rapid innovation are bearing fruit, according to a Space Symposium panel of regulators.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now takes just 15 days to issue a commercial remote sensing license, said Glenn Tallia, the regulator’s chief legal counsel for

V883 Orionis: artist’s impression of the protoplanetary disc around the star. (Courtesy: ESO/L Calçada) A study of a young star and its protoplanetary disc has provided important insights into the origins of the water on Earth. Researchers have determined the isotopic make up of the water in the disc and found it to be similar

Anders Linder, EVP Division Satellites at Beyond Gravity With more than 600 satellites in orbit the OneWeb constellation is set to provide global broadband coverage by year-end. The structure panels of all 650 OneWeb satellites were developed and produced by Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space), a leading space supplier and the global leader in satellite

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has agreed to provide Aerojet Rocketdyne $215.6 million to expand its rocket propulsion manufacturing faciltiies in order to speed up production of missiles for Ukraine, the Pentagon announced April 14. Aerojet Rocketdyne, based in Sacramento, California, makes rocket engines and propulsion systems for space vehicles, ballistic missiles and military tactical

Quantum focus The new awards from IOP Publishing are designed to recognise scientific excellence and to help support the development of scientists at the start of their careers. The first winners of two new awards in quantum technologies for early-career researchers have been announced by IOP Publishing. Feihu Xu from the University of Science and

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched more than 50 satellites early April 15 on the latest in a series of dedicated Falcon 9 smallsat rideshare missions. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Transporter-7 mission at 2:48 a.m. Eastern, after several days of weather-related delays. The upper stage reached orbit

SAN FRANCISCO — TrustPoint Inc., a startup developing a cubesat-based global navigation satellite system, launched its first satellite April 15 on the SpaceX Transporter-7 rideshare flight. For Leesburg, Virginia-based TrustPoint, the launch was the culmination of years of work aimed at proving that a highly accurate position, navigation and timing source can be contained in

Icy explorer: The €850m Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was launched today from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (courtesy: ESA/CNES/Arianespace) The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a mission to Jupiter that will test the conditions that may have led to the emergence of habitable environments. The €1.6bn Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a launch license to SpaceX to the first integrated test flight of the company’s Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle, scheduled for no earlier than April 17. The FAA announced late April 14 that it issued the license for the launch from the company’s Starbase test site in Boca

WASHINGTON — The chief executive of European small launch vehicle developer Orbex stepped down April 14 so that company can go to the “next level” ahead of its first launch. Orbex said that Chris Larmour, who led the company since its founding in 2015, was leaving the company “to allow a focus on new goals,”